Anne Curzan – University of Michigan linguistics professor, podcast host, and author of Says Who? A Kinder Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words – returns to the podcast to talk about how William Shakespeare is used as a source for the origins of hundreds of words, as well as inspiration for a playful approach to language. Anne discusses the unprecedented speed with which language travels and changes today; how slang is "the people's poetry;" an unconventional definition of the word expert; how “it’s even in Shakespeare!” can serve as classroom legitimization; the British and American distinctions between collective nouns; and how Shakespeare might have been the TikTok of his day. (Length 22:02)

For this first episode of 2025, RSC co-artistic directors Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor discuss how Austin plays the "Alternate Scrooge" in the Goodman Theatre production of A Christmas Carol for the third year in a row. Austin reveals how he threads the needle of honoring the Scrooges he alternates with (Larry Yando and Christopher Donahue) while still making the character his own; the difference between being an alternate and an understudy; how he inherited the role from previous alternate and now current Scrooge Allen Gilmore; the secrets to flying, including massive shout-outs to ZFX Flying, who makes the magic happen (not "VFX," as misidentified by Austin); what it's like to work with young performers; the danger of running out of mental bandwidth during the holidays; and the privilege of jumping from reduced productions to the Goodman's massive annual extravaganza. (Length 38:46)

For this special encore podcast episode, we present – in its entirety – the complete and unabridged recording of A Little Dickens: The Complete Christmas Carol (abridged). (Dickens's story is abridged, not the recording. You'll work it out.) First heard on Public Radio International in 1995, this antic audio adaptation features Reed Martin as Jacob Marley, Matthew Croke as Tiny Tim, and Austin Tichenor as Ebenezer Scrooge (the role he's currently playing at Chicago's Goodman Theatre). May it warm your cockles! (Length 10:47)